This disclosure relates to a dual-use bilateral microphone array, and to controlling wind noise in such an array.
Hearing aids often include two microphones, which are used to form a two-microphone beam-forming array that potentially optimizes the detection of sound in a particular direction, typically the direction the user is looking. Each hearing aid (i.e., one for each ear) has such an array, operating independently of the other. Earpieces meant for communications, such as Bluetooth® headphones, also often include two-microphone arrays, aimed not at the far-field, but at the user's own mouth, to detect the user's voice for transmission to a far-end conversation partner. Such arrays are typically provided only on a single earpiece, even in devices having two earpieces.
The use of four microphones total, two in each ear, is described in U.S. Patent application publication 2015/0230026, incorporated here by reference. That disclosure provides improved performance over using a separate pair of microphones for each ear, in the context of detecting the voice of another person, for assisting the user in hearing and conversing with the other person in a noisy environment.